At the 75th Anniversary of the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia on May 10-11, four Bowdoin crews advanced to the semi finals and from there the women advanced to win the Varsity Four DII-III! It was the 5th consecutive year of medals for the women and the first gold since they won the inaugural event for DII-III in 2009. Bonnie Cao ‘13 coxed for stroke Mary Bryan Barksdale ‘15, Catherine Yochum ‘15, Courtney Payne ‘15, and Samantha Burns ‘13.
The crew won the New England Championships on May 4th and were keen to test themselves at the national level. The Dad Vail is the largest collegiate regatta in the country, with competitors from CA to FLA and everywhere in between.
Cao, Barksdale, Yochum and Burns were together in the crew that won the College Four at Boston’s Head of The Charles Regatta in October, so the victory in Philadelphia ices the cake on an amazing season.
Bowdoin’s other 3 entries raced in the Varsity Men’s Four, the Varsity Men’s Lightweight Four, and the Novice Women’s Four. All three crews distinguished themselves by advancing to the semi finals on Saturday morning to place them in the top third of all competitors at the regatta.
Complete results at dadvail.org or row2k.com